Fabrays Fabricate the Fantasy
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day four hundred and fifty:  abc 6 of 26  The Fabrays' family portraits are a thing of pure fiction, they all know that.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 21st cycle. Now cycle 22!_

_**ALPHABET 2.0** - So nearly a year ago (HA!) I had done a set of stories taking inspiration by words, three for each letter of the alphabet (started with Acapella, Audition Arts in mid-February and every other day to April). Well now I wanted to do something like that, but using the alphabet another way. Instead of random words, I made sentences, all with those same letters (you'll see). There'll be 13 here in cycle 22, and the other half in cycle 24!  
**TODAY:** (6 of 26) F is for..._

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**"Fabrays Fabricate the Fantasy"  
(Young) Quinn, Alice, Russell, and Judy Fabray **

If one was ever socially connected to the Fabrays in any way, then they were familiar with their family portraits; they couldn't not. There were always two, every year, one in the summer and one at Christmas… every six months.

There were variations, of course. Everyone grew older and changed, mostly the children, Alice and Quinn. One year they would sit one way, another year they sat another, but still there was one constant and that was 'perfection.' It started with a couple shot, then a trio when Alice came along, and finally… Quinn. They continued the tradition, probably always would, apparently.

It was a good thing no one ever saw them right before the shots were snapped, or else it would not be 'perfection.' That image captured on film really was that… captured. It came into existence five seconds before and vanished two seconds after. And one summer it almost was that the moment never happened at all.

The girls knew it would come, when June rolled around, but the real kick-off was when one Saturday their mother would announce they were going dress shopping. It was right there in their mother's voice. Quinn was ten at the time; Alice was seventeen and had seen her fair share of portrait days. More to the point, she had seen what became of their mother at portrait days. It wasn't that she pretended to care, no, she did care… though the level of importance she gave to the practice as a whole had much more to do with upholding the image Russell Fabray wished to project. Alice knew this now; she'd figured it out. Quinn, on the other hand, she still had no idea… It was about to change. After this summer, there would be no more delusion.

But still at this time, young Quinn tagged along happily behind her mother, hand in hand with her sister. "Are we getting blue this year?" she asked.

"I don't know," Alice answered, then, "Mom, what color?" she asked. Judy paused to turn toward her daughters.

"Oh, well…" she thought. "Russell is wearing his new suit with that tie, I…" she thought out loud, then, "Yellow, and white," she decided with a nod. Quinn still looked to her sister, and Alice was right on it.

"Well, how about… blue? Blue and white? Blue and yellow? Or all three?" she suggested and Quinn nodded.

"No, no… yellow and white," Judy insisted, continuing toward the store. Quinn looked up to Alice, disappointed.

"Hey, there's always next year," she shrugged, trying to cheer her up. They knew very well that there was no point appealing the 'theme' of the portrait.

They went and they tried on dresses, for what seemed an eternity. Sometimes they would have one of their dresses locked in, but then Judy would change her mind and they were back down to zero. But finally, after an exhaustive search, they had their dresses… And then, even if no one would ever see them, they went to get shoes.

On the morning of the picture, they left, the three of them, at the crack of dawn… That was how it felt. For the longest time, a barely woken Quinn would only remember being woken up, and the next she'd know, they were at the hairdresser's. The woman, Nina, always had hot chocolate waiting, and then… Quinn came to life… She'd need it.

They went and returned home, where the photographer would be waiting, along with Russell. Quinn would run in, anxious to show her father how she looked. She ran for him, like he'd pick her up, but all he did was carefully keeping his hands out to help slow her down.

"Easy, easy," he gave a chuckle. "We wouldn't want you wrinkling," he reminded, and she blinked, then nodded. "Good. We'll start soon; go on and sit with your sister." Quinn turned to see Alice, waving at her to come sit next to her on the couch.

"Is my dress okay?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah," Alice smiled, grasping her little sister's hands. "Big ball of… yellow sunshine," she told her, hoping to see her smile… It didn't work.

"I wanted to show it to him," she looked back to their father, then to Alice again. The girl shrugged.

"I stopped trying ages ago. Just sit there and smile," she demonstrated. Quinn frowned… and she ran off. "Where are you going? Quinn!" Alice ran after her, but not nearly as fast as her. "It's just a dress!" she called after her, just as she got up the stairs. "Not the attic again…" she muttered to herself, and then… the attic door shut.

"Girls, we're about to start!" Judy called from down the stairs. Alice looked down to her.

"Yes, we're coming, Mom," she promised before going to stand under the attic door. "Quinny, come on!" she looked up to it… she'd taken in the cord… She did it all the time. "You come and take the picture with us, and then… we can hide up there all day, just us…" She stood there, waiting , and then finally, the door opened, and down came the stairs. Quinn appeared at the top. Alice climbed up and gave her sister a hug. "It's just twice a year, you know? Two days out of three hundred and sixty-five. The rest of them are better, you just remember that." They pulled back, and Alice went about drying her face.

"Do we have to?"

"Yeah," Alice nodded. "It's okay. You'll stand next to me."

The girls went on downstairs, where the photographer – same as every year – was checking his equipment, while Judy worked to fix Russell's tie. After a moment he brushed her off, fixing his jacket, and Judy blinked and stood back, smoothing out her dress before turning and seeing her daughters at the door. She waved them forward.

"Quinn's standing next to me, okay?" Alice spoke to her mother. Judy went to say something, but Alice went on. "She's going to stand next to me… right?"

"Yes, actually," Judy obliged a smile. "We'll go Dad, and me, and you, and then Quinn…" she counted off. Quinn smiled up to Alice, as Judy went to 'inform' her husband, which Alice knew would require specific wording.

Alice went with Quinn, getting into position and reaching behind her back, taking her left hand with her own left hand… It wouldn't show on the image, but it'd be something to get her smiling. The parents got in line, and as Russell was – basically – telling the photographer how to do his job, Quinn was just keeping hold of her big sister's hand, anxious to go hide away in the attic as promised. They got last minute urgings to stand up straight, and smile, and…

It was the year illusions started to fade away, when young Quinn Fabray really started to understand 'the game' at her house, with her family.

But the next summer, they wore blue.

THE END

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**A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
****In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
****always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!**


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